Crime as a Campaign Issue

Published: September 24, 2007

To the Editors:

I am not convinced by the claim in ''All Crime Is Local in '08 Politics'' (Week in Review, Sept. 16) that the presidential candidates' recent experiences with crime either through office break-ins or portraying a district attorney on a television show are ''as close as any presidential candidate has come to making crime a priority.''

The article didn't mention Senator Barack Obama's powerful speeches on rising violence and crime in Chicago after a series of heinous gun violence.

On July 15, Mr. Obama asserted: ''Our playgrounds have become battlegrounds. Our streets have become cemeteries. Our schools have become places to mourn the ones we've lost.'' He then called on government, the gun lobby and the public to do more to fight such crime.

Possibly this call to action was seen as ''local.'' But I think the article should have mentioned it.